Syrian Turkoman escaping the bombs cross at Oncupinar Border Crossing, Kilis, Turkey in February 2016. Depo Photos/ABACA/PA Images. All rights reserved.
If there is any country where the lack of safe passage has resulted in deplorable living conditions, it is Syria. Families have been displaced multiple times throughout the seven-year war, with millions driven out of the country to make do, either temporarily or permanently, elsewhere. Those still stuck inside Syria have no safe passage to leave the country. At best, they have recourse to limited, temporary responses to meet their growing protection needs.
Despite the failure of achieving peace in Syria, the U.N. Summit for Migrants and Refugees, held last September, provides an opportunity to reframe how we view the peaceful civilians who want to escape armed conflict. The proposed U.N. Global Compacts for Refugees and Migrants should extend international protection to more individuals affected by conflict and hold states accountable when they restrict safe passage and return refugees to states that fail to offer protection.
